


We All Have Pain

by amageish



Series: Danganronpa x DDLC Hurt/Comfort [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Doki Doki Literature Club! (Visual Novel)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Classical Music, Comfort/Angst, Depression, F/F, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, I Tried to Make it Wholesome, This Isn't As Poor Taste as It Sounds I Promise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:08:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26676433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amageish/pseuds/amageish
Summary: Kaede supports Sayori and is supported by her in turn.Chapter 1 is Sayori-focused with rainclouds/thought-spirals. Chapter 2 is more lighthearted, with Kaede appreciating Sayori's support and making a metric tonne of music references.
Relationships: Akamatsu Kaede/Sayori, Kirigiri Kyoko/Naegi Makoto (referenced)
Series: Danganronpa x DDLC Hurt/Comfort [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1941061
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	1. Moonlight Sontana

**Author's Note:**

> CW: Depression, negative thought spirals, and general feelings of not being worth love/care
> 
> No references to death or dying.

“See? You did it. Are you feeling any better?”

Sayori remained silent and stared forward. It was a little past midnight. She was sitting on her bed in her pajamas, having just taken a shower for the first time in several days. A cup of warm hot cocoa sat in-between her hands. The sweetness was nice, but ultimately only served to contrast with her mood.

_Kaede is wasting her time on you. Again. The Ultimate Pianist could be practicing, but instead she’s ensuring you shower.  
_

“Rainclouds again?” Kaede asked, breaking through Sayori’s thoughts. Sayori nodded. “Would you like a hug, or...”

“Too fragile…” Sayori mumbled, “But thank you for being here.”

_You can’t even hug your girlfriend. Pathetic._

“It’s okay. I understand. Thanks for being honest.” Kaede said, smiling. She sat in silence for a moment, before turning and looking at Sayori directly in the eyes. “You are really talented, you know.”

“What?”

_She’s lying. You got into this school by chance. Nothing special._

“Ultimate Luck is a long-standing tradition in this school for a reason. A school filled with people with hyper-specific skill sets wouldn’t last too long. You like a Piano Freak like me could keep it running? Hardly… We need people like you help us, guide us through the chaos we live in. You’re the Ultimate Luck, as those who have been graced with your presence in their life cannot be more lucky. You act as the glue in so many situations and diffuse so many conflicts. I sometimes wonder if we’d have all killed each other by now if you weren’t here.”

_She’s lying. She’s going to go and make fun of you after. She’ll tell Shuichi all about how you called her up and made her come over at midnight.They’ll laugh. Monika will overhear. She’ll kick you out of the club. It’s all over._

“I’m nothing special. I can’t even shower by myself… I’m pathetic.”

“No. That’s wrong. Forgive my bluntness, but you’re very special. Everyone has dark times and dark moments… We all understand. You’re not at fault for hurting. Look, I believe in you; we can work on getting you to believe in yourself over time.”

“You say that to everyone…” Sayori muttered. This was true; she had heard Kaede say variations of this phrase to almost all of their mutual friends at some point or another. Kaede was constantly running around, cheering people up, and making people make large-scale promises to be and do better. And, weirdest of all, it often worked.

“I do say it a lot, but that’s because it’s true for a lot of people! To have insecurities and fears is to be human. I like to remind people that they’re irrational. The rainclouds can come, but sunshine comes through. I can’t claim to know what it’s like to go through what you’re going through, but I still need you to know and believe that things can - nay, will - get better.”

Sayori was silent. She didn’t know what to say.

However, for once, the rainclouds didn’t know what to say either.

“With all that said... Would you like me to play you to sleep? I’ve been looking for an excuse to play stuff that isn’t for my next recital anyway…”

Sayori sighed, but nodded. Sleep would be good for her. She handed Kaede the mug and crawled under the covers.

When Kaede had first suggested setting up a keyboard in her bedroom, Sayori had been embarrassed. She had thought it a waste of Kaede’s time and money. However, Kaede playing songs did help her sleep and she knew Kaede enjoyed playing music. It was worth keeping it there, she figured.

Kaede resisted the urge to play Moonlight Sonata, which felt thematic for time of night, but far too sad for this moment. She worried any classical songs of joy would just make Sayori feel worse, lost in the battle between joyous melodies and smooth counter-melodies. Kaede didn’t know much pop; she could ask Sayaka for some sheet music for next time.

Racking her brain for options, Kaede recalled a song she had played while accompanying a musical theatre company a few years back. She wasn’t convinced she could play every note properly, so it wouldn’t be played perfectly, but she was skilled enough to ad-lib as needed. Sayori only needed to hear the melody of it, after all...

And it worked. Sayori knew the song… she closed her eyes and hummed along.

_The sun’ll come out… tomorrow… bet your bottom dollar… that tomorrow… there will be sun._

The rainclouds scoffed. _Your girlfriend is way too on-the-nose_.

 _It’s okay. I love her for it_ , thought Sayori.

She drifts peacefully to sleep. 

And, gradually, through therapy and with Kaede by her side… the sun comes out.


	2. John Cage’s 4’33

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaede considers her relationship with Sayori and her opinion on John Cage.

John Cage’s 4’33 is a song with no sheet music. When performed on piano, the pianist sits in front of a piano and doesn’t play anything. The silence is supposedly meant to encourage people to reflect on the noise of their surroundings. It’s supposed to be meditative and relaxing - a commentary on what does and doesn’t qualify as music.

As a kid, Kaede believed John Cage was a pretentious fuck. Why perform a song with no notes to play along to? Her joy comes from playing, performing, and expressing feelings through music. Sitting in front of a piano, twiddling her thumbs for 4 minutes, accomplished none of these.

At Hope Peak’s Academy, Kaede’s life has been a cacophony. She loved her friends. She loved her school. She loved the freedom to learn and grow on her own terms. She was also exhausted.

She had played plenty of roles and songs in her time at Hope’s Peak. She had witnessed and participated in Shuichi’s growth into confidence, bringing him into the Moonlight; the Clair De Lune. She had seen how Kokichi would enter the room and throw everything and everyone into a high-pitched fever; the irritating yet somehow loveable chaos of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight Of The Bumblebee. She witnessed Makoto and Kyoko grow to echo each other’s thoughts and actions like Pachelbel’s Canon, narrowly missing one another before ultimately joining their melodies as one. She witnessed Sayaka be filled with all the slow melancholy of Bach’s Come, Sweet Death over this relationship, only to have her sadness be interrupted by Ibuki joyfully bursting through the door like an off-tempo performance of Bizet’s Toreadors. She had hurriedly written essays with the fervor of Anderson’s Typewriter, with failures that left her feeling like she was trapped In the Hall of the Mountain King and successes that had her swelling with the power of Verdi’s Triumphal March.

She had met Sayori, who made her heartbeat go more staccato then Mozart’s Turkish March. She had Sayori confide in her about her problems, sending her on a complex journey only rivaled by the sweeping mood swings contained throughout Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Kaede’s songs had evolved, remixed, and changed across her time at Hope’s Peak, affected by others who she then affected in turn.

And now… Sayori was asleep on her arm. Kaede was seated at her piano bench and Sayori had fallen asleep against her arm. Kaede couldn’t play any song that required moving her hands without awakening her girlfriend, who likely needed the slumber.

So, she played 4’33. She sat in silence and listened to Sayori’s breathing, ebbing and flowing melodically. 

Sayori will deny that these moments had value. She will apologize for sleeping on her and taking her away from the practice. However, Sayori will be wrong. Kaede needed these moments; she needed the practice that silence and peace could provide her. Kaede often acted as the protagonist of an opera, having to help all those he encountered, even if she would harm herself in the end. With Sayori, she was comfortable living in peace. The cacophony would resume as the next Act begins, but, for now, she could relax.

Kaede still believed John Cage was a pretentious fuck. However, as she drummed along to the beat of Sayori’s heart, she couldn’t help but deny that 4’33 could, in some moments, contain her favourite melody.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does it make sense for Clair De Lune, a song about lovers torn apart by fate, to be the song of Shuichi in this? Not really, but I’m not brave enough to break canon like that...
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it! I had a lot of fun coming up with the various classical music allusions. Kaede is such a nerd and I love her for it.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed reading this! I had this idea a couple hours ago and it just kind of poured out of me... This will hopefully be a fourt-part series, each being 2-chapter works about a DDLC character and their DR counterpart. Not all of them will be connected in such a dark way...


End file.
